Noeli Kikuchi, a Japanese dancer, performer and choreographer born in Portugal, began her dance training at Escola Superior de Dança (IPL), completing her master’s degree in Performing Arts at FCSH-NOVA and a curricular internship at the theater company Artistas Unidos. She participated in the EVC’s Young Composers program in 2019. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Art Studies — Drama and Performance Studies at Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra.
She began her professional career as a dancer and rehearsal assistant in the inclusive dance performance Un Tsugi (2021), directed by the choreographer Rafael Alvarez. As a performer, she has participated in various performances since then, among them: Now I Know, I Really Don’t Know (2021) by Hugo Marmelada; Renacimiento (2022); the opera Blimunda (2022); Sonhos de Einstein (2023) by Rui Horta; Na Onda da Distância (2022) by Rafael Alvarez; Transformer L’Homme (2022) by Tomás Moital; and the videoclip for ISLET (2022) by Surma. She recurrently works with Rafael Alvarez on the national and international touring of the performance MONO-NO-AWARE (2024-2025). She furthered the collaboration with this choreographer with the project Choreo.Portraits (2024) and with TSUGI (2025).
She made her debut as a choreographer with the transdisciplinary piece Ok, honey (2022), co-created with the composer Inês Madeira Lopes and the percussionist Madalena Rato. In the field of theater, she joined the physical theater company Manga Theater under the direction of Tiago Faria, and she worked with the group theater ULTIMACTO as the movement assistant to the stage director Hugo Gama and as the stage assistant to the stage director Jorge Silva Melo in Vida de Artistas (2023).
Fotografia
© Beatriz Almeida
